Time to Say Goodbye
by Alexis1
Summary: Cordelia has to face something she never thought she'd had too.


Time to Say Goodbye  
  
Disclaimer: I now state I do not own any of the people mentioned in this fan fic (though I'm welcome to offers David!) This is purely for entertainment.   
  
Rating: If you're old enough to watch the show you can read this.  
  
Author's note: Cordelia faces something she hoped she never would have to.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Come on Angel!" Cordelia whispered, leaning over her friend's body. His black shirt was ripped and she could see blood gushing from a wound in his stomach.  
He coughed, blood staining his teeth as it slipped from the multiple cuts he had.  
She pressed one hand to the area and dialed her cell with the other.  
"Gunn! Get here quick! We're in the bushes outside Wolfram and Hart. It doesn't look good. Angel…he's not good. Hurry."  
She pressed end and dropped the phone, only bothered about stopping the blood flow.   
"Cordelia?" he asked.  
"Its me. Stay awake…come on. Only a little while, they're gonna be here soon."  
Suddenly his body reared up. He began to thrash and roll around. Cordelia covered his mouth with one of her bloodied hands. She was acutely aware was Lindsey McDonald would do if he found out they were outside.   
"Angel stop it! They'll hear!"  
His breathing became steady after a few desperate gasps….she paused….  
"Angel! You're breathing! You're alive."  
"I guess…" he broke off and coughed some more. "...They thought I had I deserved my shansu."  
"You do. Hold on, Gunn and Wesley are gonna be here in a minute and we can take you to hospital. You just gotta hold on."  
"I can't. It hurts so bad. Wolfram and Hart set a trap so I'd be skewered multiple times…some of them healed before you found me…I can't stand it anymore, I'm human." A few stray tears ran down Cordelia's face.  
"Don't cry. It's a good thing."  
"No it's not. Because you'd heal faster if you were still…"  
"Tell Buffy, that I love her. And tell Wes and Gunn thank you. And…watch out for Kate."  
"You can tell them yourself. You'll see them all soon."  
He shook his head.  
"I won't see them again. You're the last person."  
"I bet your wishing I wasn't."  
"No. I'm glad its you. Thank you. Be safe Cordelia and know that…you're the most precious person in my life."  
"Angel don't leave me. Please Angel."  
"I'm sorry. Cor…" his head lolled to one side and his chest fell. It didn't rise again.  
"No…." she whispered leaning her head against his chest. "No."  
  
The hotel was silent. Wesley and Gunn paced nervously. They had tried talking to her but she wouldn't respond. They tried to clean her up, she wouldn't let them. They tried to get her to rest, she refused. She just lay on Angel's bed staring at the ceiling in silence.   
"What's happening?" And irate voice demanded.   
A petite blonde burst through the doors followed by a tall, thin man wearing glasses, with a small red head just behind. Moments later they were joined by a tall man with dark hair.  
"Buffy…I'm sorry. Angel died earlier tonight. We found him and Cordelia outside the offices of Wolfram and Hart. He was dead and she…she won't speak. She was just lying next to him." Wesley explained.  
Buffy stumbled back and was caught on each side by Xander and Willow.   
"Do you know what…caused it?" Giles said softly.  
"No. Wolfram and Hart have had a grudge against us for a long while. They tried to kill me and Cordelia before and they've been torturing Angel with Darla and…other means."  
"I need to speak to her." Buffy said suddenly.  
"Hey, she won't speak to anyone. If she won't talk to us…" Gunn told her. He didn't like this girl's attitude one bit.  
"I. Am. Going. To. Speak. To. Her."  
Wesley put his hand up, silently telling Gunn to stay put.  
"I'll show you up."  
  
The ceiling was plain. White in colour. There was a red lampshade covering a low watt bulb. It was normal. Plain. Nothing that would make her think too hard.   
Vaguely she heard a door slamming and voices. But that didn't matter. All that mattered was looking at the ceiling, being numb.  
She heard footsteps and willed them away. She wanted to be alone with her nothingness.   
"She's in here."  
Wesley.  
She sensed rather than saw someone sit next to her. She could smell perfume so she guessed it was a woman.   
"Cordelia, its me Buffy."  
She continued to stare at the ceiling.   
"Please tell me what happened."  
Still she didn't answer of even acknowledge the blonde's presence.   
Buffy sighed in exasperation.   
Slowly she placed her hand on Cordelia's cheek.  
"I have to know."  
It pushed her over the edge.  
Tears began escaping and they just wouldn't stop. Soon they became full-fledged sobs. They mixed with the blood, beginning to stain the pillow red.   
"He's gone. He's really gone."  
Buffy moved closer to Cordelia and pulled the girl into her lap.   
"Just tell me what happened." Buffy instructed, stroking her friend's short hair.  
"I…I had a vision. It was of Angel at Wolfram and Hart. I tried to ring them but they were out of range. So I went by myself. I was outside and I heard this groaning sound. I saw him lying there. He must have escaped from them but he was really hurt. I rang them again and tried to stop the blood…but there was too much and it just wouldn't stop."  
Buffy was crying herself now.  
"Then he started tossing all about. I had to make him be quiet in case we were heard, so I put my hand over his mouth. Then… then I felt him breathe. He was alive and breathing. But he knew that he was going to die. So he told me to tell you…that he loved you and told me to thank Wesley and Gunn and too look after Kate, this policewoman who's helped us out. And then he…he told me to be safe and that I was the most precious person in his life…I begged him not to go but he just couldn't stay. He apologized then he started to say my name…then he stopped breathing."  
Buffy was sobbing loudly like Cordelia now.   
"Shhhhh. Its gonna be OK."  
Buffy began to rock back and forward and cry with the girl who had obviously taken her place in Angel's heart. When it came to his last words he said her name.   
She stood and pulled the blanket up and over her.   
"Try and get some rest."  
She retreated and closed the door.   
"God…." She whispered sinking down to the floor.  
  
"This scroll, may I see it?" Giles asked curiously.   
"Certainly."  
The crumbling piece of paper was handed over and Giles scanned it.   
"The vampire with a soul's most precious…"  
"I couldn't get any further."  
"This is a meaning. It seems familiar…I think it might be from The El Tiuita legend."  
"Of course…" Wesley muttered reaching for a book containing the story. "…the jewel was lost at sea from the ship The Mansfield. Therefore it is known as the lost jewel of the sea."  
"Jewel of the sea. Angel has a Jewel of the sea?" Willow said, looking at the book.  
Everyone was puzzled. Angel didn't OWN any jewels so how could he have one of the sea?  
"Maybe it's meant to mean something else. A meaning." Xander suggested.   
"Names."   
The assembled group turned to look at Gunn.   
"Names have meanings. Maria is sea of bitterness. It was my mom's name."  
Quickly Willow went online and did a name search.   
"Meaning is Jewel of the Sea. Search…." She frowned. "This is…strange. Cordelia means jewel of the sea. Heart."  
Quickly Giles and Wesley scanned the rest of the text using various reference books.   
  
Buffy watched the man who was lying still next to her. The whole room was dusty and smelled slightly of rotting wood.   
"You did it. You got your humanity…You deserved it. I'll…I'll help Cordelia. And Wesley and the other guy. She told me about the other woman. I'll watch her too. I'm gonna miss you so much. Even when you weren't with me, I knew, I knew that I could come see you. I knew that you were there. And now…you're gone. I love you Angel. I always will. And now I know we won't get the chance too…too have the things we could have. I have to let go."   
She stood and wiped the tears away. She needed to be strong. The others needed her.  
"Goodbye Angel."  
  
"The vampire with a soul's most precious jewel will cease to exist when his heart rests still for the final time. She will ascend to him, to be reborn on a higher plane. The link that binds them cannot be broken. They share something pure as Seer and Warrior. The previous Seer's life was sacrificed so this bond could be formed. Pure of heart, pure of body, pure of soul, finally at peace."  
The room sat in stunned silence before Xander at the sense of mind to snap them out of it.   
"That doesn't mean she's…."  
"She's going to die." Willow whispered weakly.   
The group climbed the stairs to the room where she lay, dreading what they might find.  
She had moved and was now looking out the window.   
"Its coming I can feel it."  
Buffy captured her head in her hands.  
"Cordelia look at me. You have to stay here and fight."  
"I can't. He's calling me. They both are. I have to leave."   
Her eyes were beginning to glaze and Gunn shook her desperately, trying to hold on to her.  
"Come on girl. We still have some demons to kill."  
"Its too late. She's already gone." Wesley said with resignation.  
"She's still breathing. There must be something we can do." Xander demanded. Cordelia would always be his first love and he just didn't think he could lose her.  
"Her body is still functioning but her soul, her heart are already with Angel." Giles explained.  
"It's not fair." Willow said stubbornly.   
"It is. When I needed him he was there so I have to do the same."  
  
Buffy was freaking out. She's lost her mom and Angel in less than a year and now Cordelia was acting like Dru, all child like and innocent.  
"Bye bye." Cordelia smiled before her body seemed to just stop, the smile still in place.  
"Bye." Buffy whispered.  
  
"The two we lay to rest today battled to protect. They gave their lives in their fight. So we bid them farewell, and hope we will see them when our Lord calls us to join them. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."   
The priest shook hands with Giles and moved away, leaving the devastated group together, staring at the hole in the ground in which lay two coffins.   
The two watchers said silent prayers before dropping four roses to the young woman and extremely old man who had given so much to both of them.   
"See ya Cordy. I'll miss you. That goes for you too dead boy!" Xander quipped, one arm wrapped around Anya.  
"You didn't deserve to die." She said softly. Death was still confusing to her.  
Xander dropped a picture of the whole gang minus Angel, Tara and Anya.   
A figure ran from the trees with a blanket covering his head.   
"Bloody hell. Take care mate." Spike yelled before leaving a stake and running back to his dilapidated car as flames started to lick up his back.  
Oz, who had returned from his travels to pay his respects, nodded briefly before leaving more flowers, this time daises.   
Willow and Tara chanted briefly before a shower of herbs rained down over the coffins.   
"It's for protection."  
Faith was next.   
"You never gave up on me Angel. Thank you." She whispered gently leaning down and letting her cross fall from her hands. "And sorry about the whole leaving you unconscious thing Cor."  
Dawn, Buffy and Gunn were left.  
"This is Charles Gunn, saying over and out." He murmured, remembering Cordelia's insistence that they end messages properly so she knew that they were just ending the conversation and had not been ambushed. A card with what looked like a butterfly floated down before landing between Oz's dasies.   
Dawn tied a scarf too a book.   
"There's poems for you Angel and a scarf for Cordelia."  
Finally Buffy was alone.   
"I'm sorry I couldn't do anything for you. Thank you. You taught me so much. About loyalty and duty Cordelia and love and hope Angel. Love you."  
She placed two roses in a cross shape and left, unable to stand it any longer.   
  
From somewhere far above Sunnydale stood two higher beings, they skin glowing a light golden color in the eerie light.   
The female moved forward to the marble slabs that floated above the ground at waist height.   
She reached her hand out and brushed a lock of hair of a pretty girl's face before moving to the second slab and looking down at the man who lay there.   
She exhaled loudly drinking in both of their appearances.   
"You would never believe all they suffered."  
"Sister, please. We are not meant to have sympathy for mere mortals. Especially failed warriors and weak seers."  
"But brother! How can you deny how noble they have been? He gave his humanity up the first time for his soulmate and she willingly came to him in the afterlife. No other seer has ever done that. No other being has ever done that."  
"Well…I suppose."  
"Wake them then."  
The man sneered and roughly shook the man.  
"What?" Angel muttered, sitting up.   
It took him a second before he realised where he was.  
"Where am I?"   
"You are in Eden. The new improved sans Eve Eden."  
"The Oracles?"  
"Yes. You died a noble death. You deserved your humanity. So you have been called here to help us with a little experiment."  
"Experiment?"   
"Yes. We need to teach guides from here. They will wake up with knowledge they didn't know they had. The each will be set on a path. The lessons will seem like dreams to them."  
"You and the girl are the two most worthy."  
"The girl?"  
"Yes. She died a noble death too. She is a shining example of a Seer."  
"Cordelia's dead?" Angel asked in shock.  
"Look behind you." The woman said with a kind smile.   
Angel did as she said only to discover his best friend lying utterly motionless.  
"Cordelia?" he whispered, leaning over her and inspecting her face.  
She coughed loudly and sat up, her head hitting Angel's chest.  
"Wh…where…who?"   
"Hey."  
Her eyes widened at the familiar tone of voice.   
"Angel!"   
Automatically she drew him to her in a tight hug, almost choking him.  
"I thought you'd died."  
"I did. You're dead too."   
She pulled back sharply and hit him, before looking around.  
"Oh my god."  
She kissed him on the cheek, to compensate for her earlier slap.  
"And that's not all…We've be chosen for this…." He began to explain.  
"Lets leave them too it." The golden woman said, linking arms with her only sibling.  
"I suppose so. Now he can't lose his soul…"  
"Have you leaned nothing brother? Lust or desire has not tainted their love for each other. Well, at least not yet…" she whispered before leaving the reunited pair in a beautiful embrace. 


End file.
